round & round

Tag Archives: android sdk

Prerequisites:

What is aapt?

aapt is the Android Asset Packaging Tool. It is used in the APK build process to compile application resource files, such as the AndroidManifest.xml file and the XML files for your Activities, generate R.java and also to create, update and view Android zip-compatible packages (apk, jar, zip). Thus aapt executable can be used to view various details of an APK such as the target api version, resources, launcher activity etc.

Where to find it?

Aapt comes with Android SDK ($ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools) or can be compiled from the source code.

The sources are located at: $ANDROID_BUILD_ROOT/frameworks/base/tools/aapt.

The compiled executable by default will be at: $ANDROID_BUILD_ROOT/out/host/linux-x86/bin

What to do with aapt?

The full list of option of appt is:

djodjo@ubuntu:~$ aapt
Android Asset Packaging Tool
Usage:
aapt l[ist] [-v] [-a] file.{zip,jar,apk}
List contents of Zip-compatible archive.
aapt d[ump] [--values] WHAT file.{apk} [asset [asset ...]]
badging Print the label and icon for the app declared in APK.
permissions Print the permissions from the APK.
resources Print the resource table from the APK.
configurations Print the configurations in the APK.
xmltree Print the compiled xmls in the given assets.
xmlstrings Print the strings of the given compiled xml assets.
aapt p[ackage] [-d][-f][-m][-u][-v][-x][-z][-M AndroidManifest.xml] \
[-0 extension [-0 extension ...]] [-g tolerance] [-j jarfile] \
[--debug-mode] [--min-sdk-version VAL] [--target-sdk-version VAL] \
[--app-version VAL] [--app-version-name TEXT] [--custom-package VAL] \
[--rename-manifest-package PACKAGE] \
[--rename-instrumentation-target-package PACKAGE] \
[--utf16] [--auto-add-overlay] \
[--max-res-version VAL] \
[-I base-package [-I base-package ...]] \
[-A asset-source-dir] [-G class-list-file] [-P public-definitions-file] \
[-S resource-sources [-S resource-sources ...]] \
[-F apk-file] [-J R-file-dir] \
[--product product1,product2,...] \
[-c CONFIGS] [--preferred-configurations CONFIGS] \
[raw-files-dir [raw-files-dir] ...] \
[--output-text-symbols DIR]
Package the android resources. It will read assets and resources that are
supplied with the -M -A -S or raw-files-dir arguments. The -J -P -F and -R
options control which files are output.
aapt r[emove] [-v] file.{zip,jar,apk} file1 [file2 ...]
Delete specified files from Zip-compatible archive.
aapt a[dd] [-v] file.{zip,jar,apk} file1 [file2 ...]
Add specified files to Zip-compatible archive.
aapt c[runch] [-v] -S resource-sources ... -C output-folder ...
Do PNG preprocessing and store the results in output folder.
aapt v[ersion]
Print program version.
Modifiers:
-a print Android-specific data (resources, manifest) when listing
-c specify which configurations to include. The default is all
configurations. The value of the parameter should be a comma
separated list of configuration values. Locales should be specified
as either a language or language-region pair. Some examples:
en
port,en
port,land,en_US
If you put the special locale, zz_ZZ on the list, it will perform
pseudolocalization on the default locale, modifying all of the
strings so you can look for strings that missed the
internationalization process. For example:
port,land,zz_ZZ
-d one or more device assets to include, separated by commas
-f force overwrite of existing files
-g specify a pixel tolerance to force images to grayscale, default 0
-j specify a jar or zip file containing classes to include
-k junk path of file(s) added
-m make package directories under location specified by -J
-u update existing packages (add new, replace older, remove deleted files)
-v verbose output
-x create extending (non-application) resource IDs
-z require localization of resource attributes marked with
localization="suggested"
-A additional directory in which to find raw asset files
-G A file to output proguard options into.
-F specify the apk file to output
-I add an existing package to base include set
-J specify where to output R.java resource constant definitions
-M specify full path to AndroidManifest.xml to include in zip
-P specify where to output public resource definitions
-S directory in which to find resources. Multiple directories will be scanned
and the first match found (left to right) will take precedence.
-0 specifies an additional extension for which such files will not
be stored compressed in the .apk. An empty string means to not
compress any files at all.
--debug-mode
inserts android:debuggable="true" in to the application node of the
manifest, making the application debuggable even on production devices.
--min-sdk-version
inserts android:minSdkVersion in to manifest. If the version is 7 or
higher, the default encoding for resources will be in UTF-8.
--target-sdk-version
inserts android:targetSdkVersion in to manifest.
--max-res-version
ignores versioned resource directories above the given value.
--values
when used with "dump resources" also includes resource values.
--version-code
inserts android:versionCode in to manifest.
--version-name
inserts android:versionName in to manifest.
--custom-package
generates R.java into a different package.
--extra-packages
generate R.java for libraries. Separate libraries with ':'.
--generate-dependencies
generate dependency files in the same directories for R.java and resource package
--auto-add-overlay
Automatically add resources that are only in overlays.
--preferred-configurations
Like the -c option for filtering out unneeded configurations, but
only expresses a preference. If there is no resource available with
the preferred configuration then it will not be stripped.
--rename-manifest-package
Rewrite the manifest so that its package name is the package name
given here. Relative class names (for example .Foo) will be
changed to absolute names with the old package so that the code
does not need to change.
--rename-instrumentation-target-package
Rewrite the manifest so that all of its instrumentation
components target the given package. Useful when used in
conjunction with --rename-manifest-package to fix tests against
a package that has been renamed.
--product
Specifies which variant to choose for strings that have
product variants
--utf16
changes default encoding for resources to UTF-16. Only useful when API
level is set to 7 or higher where the default encoding is UTF-8.
--non-constant-id
Make the resources ID non constant. This is required to make an R java class
that does not contain the final value but is used to make reusable compiled
libraries that need to access resources.
--error-on-failed-insert
Forces aapt to return an error if it fails to insert values into the manifest
with --debug-mode, --min-sdk-version, --target-sdk-version --version-code
and --version-name.
Insertion typically fails if the manifest already defines the attribute.
--output-text-symbols
Generates a text file containing the resource symbols of the R class in the
specified folder.
--ignore-assets
Assets to be ignored. Default pattern is:
!.svn:!.git:!.ds_store:!*.scc:.*:_*:!CVS:!thumbs.db:!picasa.ini:!*~
djodjo@ubuntu:~$